


The Defeat

by lies_d



Series: The Defeat [1]
Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Alien Reproduction, Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, Dubious Consent, M/M, alien/human hybrid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:22:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21727474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lies_d/pseuds/lies_d
Summary: Richard's body has been taken over by an alien parasite, sent on a mission of world domination. Now that he's been captured, Jared assists in his interrogation.
Relationships: Jared Dunn/Richard Hendricks
Series: The Defeat [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984354
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	The Defeat

**Author's Note:**

> This a weird little AU that's been sitting in my hard drive for awhile. Thought I might a well dust it off and post it.

They brought him to grey room and told him to sit. The concrete walls made it seem smaller than it was, impressing to mind the weight of the earth above and surrounding him. A solid sheet of plexiglass separated him from the next room, a white room, with smooth plastic walls and an identical chair.

Jared sat.

The door at the back of the white room opened and three people emerged – two soldiers, with Richard between them.

Gaunt and pale, he wore loose clothes made out of the same disposable material as a hospital smock. Bruises and bandages criss-crossed his arms. Someone had shaved his head. He looked terrible, but he was alive.

Three months since the discovery. Since a military team had arrested Richard violently, and then taken him away. Jared had been frantic the entire time.

 _Alive, Richard is alive_ , Jared told himself for the thousandth time, because here finally was the proof. Every sound in the room seemed to echo in his ears and when Richard sat down Jared finally remembered to breathe.

"Ask him the first question." The Colonel's voice instructed through his earbud, but when Jared looked down at the sheaf of papers in his hands, the words on the page were too blurred to make out. He blinked and blinked some more until his vision cleared.

"Do you know what my name is?" Jared asked.

"Yes. It's Donald Dunn. But everyone calls you Jared."

"And who are you?"

Richard fidgeted with his hands, such a familiar movement that Jared wanted to look away, but he couldn't.

"I'm, uh. This guy, my host." He pointed towards his chest. "His name is Richard Hendricks. But I'm up here." He tapped himself on the temple. "My name isn't really pronounceable with this mouth, like a bird trying to miaow. But it means sunlight, more or less. You can call me Sonny."

~~~

The Colonel steepled her fingers, then folded them.

"We've conducted several interrogations sessions and managed to gather no useful intelligence. No intelligence at all, in fact. All he will say, the only thing he's said, is that he would like to talk to you. He said he would answer any questions we have. But only if you ask them for us."

Jared nodded.

"We have no reason to believe he means you any harm. Even if he did, there's no way that he could. You have our assurance that you would be safe."

Jared wasn't worried about that. He wanted to see Richard, and he'd do it if it meant being thrown into a dark, lonely pit with him. He drew a long breath to try and steady his voice.

"Yes, I think I can do that."

~~~

Jared stared at the bruises on Richard's right hand. Bloodied gauze covered each fingertip. A splint held his index and middle fingers together.

 _Impervious to interrogation,_ a phrase the Colonel had used, came into his mind. Jared wondered queasily how far they'd gone, trying to extract information from Richard. He realized he didn't want to know. No treaty or convention existed to protect this entity, and the people of Earth, everywhere, and these ones in particular, were getting desperate.

Richard – no, Sonny – noticed Jared staring and tucked his right hand behind his left. Jared glanced up at his face and saw an expression he'd seen before. He looked the _same_ , he looked just the same.

"Are you okay?" Sonny asked. "Have you been okay, Jared?"

Jared sniffed and wiped his cheeks as quickly as he could. "I'm fine," he answered, and felt ashamed at how thin and weak his voice sounded. He cleared his throat and looked down at his papers. "Next question: What is the purpose of your stay on Earth?"

"Broadly? Or specifically?"

Jared flipped through the pages and found no guidance. "Both," he made the judgement call.

"Well." Sonny folded his arms around himself the way Richard did. "Broadly, I'm here as part of the first wave of an invasion to take control of this planet. The infiltrators. Specifically, I'm here to embed faulty software in strategic organizations. Disrupt the government, so to speak."

This was something they hadn't known, something they'd suspected. It had been their fear – their worst one. The words, spoken out loud so plainly, shocked even Jared.

~~~

Richard came into the kitchen to watch while Jared laid out his pad Thai on a tray. Thank goodness he'd already picked off and discarded the cilantro. He broke the chopsticks, rubbed them together, and laid them beside the fork, just in case Richard wanted to try practicing again.

The rest of the guys had gone home. Jared enjoyed these late nights, when it was just the two of them. He always had. Richard seemed calmer lately, more focused. Most CEOs didn't write much code once they reached the top, but Richard was never like most CEOs. Some things, it seemed, never changed, like late nights working and delivery food.

"Thanks, Jared." Richard said, and that just made Jared's day.

"You're welcome Richard."

Even though he knew he shouldn't, Jared reached out to fix one side of Richard's collar, because it was late and he felt tired and giddy and strangely close to Richard in that moment, and because it has been bothering him all day. He did it slowly, so Richard could stop him if he wanted to.

Richard didn't stop him. He looked up and watched Jared's face. When Jared was done, Richard reached out and tugged one side of Jared's collar, even though Jared knew his collar was immaculate. The mirroring gesture had a meaning that wasn't lost on him, even as he dismissed the act as an impulsive anomaly. He knew, had always known with certainty, that Richard didn't feel as strongly, even as a friend, as Jared felt for him.

Richard continued to look at Jared, looking at him, and Jared became aware of how close they were standing.

"You like me, don't you, Jared?" Richard asked.

"Of course! I like you very much," replied Jared, because that was the truthful answer to any possible meaning of the question.

"Could you do me a favour?"

"Yes – anything you want."

Richard nodded and looked down at his shoes. "It's just that I've been kind of... distracted lately. Frustrated. Distracted by frustration. And I thought maybe you could help me with that."

Richard's eyes narrowed as he studied Jared's face.

"Anything you want," Jared repeated, bobbling his head in what he felt was probably a stupid way, but he couldn't help himself because he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to do but he really, really meant it.

Richard chewed his lip. "Okay," he said. He turned the lid back over his pad Thai.

The favour Richard wanted turned out to involve getting down to his knees on the tile of the bathroom floor while Richard leaned back against the sink.

Jared knew enough about being used, but of all the times he'd ever been used, he'd never enjoyed it so much. Richard's hand lay gently on the back of his head, and the noises he drew from Richard's throat snapped through him like electricity.

While Richard pulled his pants up, Jared stood to go, wondering how fast he could get home for a cold shower, hoping that Richard didn't regret this too much already.

"Wait," said Richard.

Jared braced himself for what he assumed would be shame-faced instructions not to tell anyone. Instead, Richard stopped him at the door and opened Jared's pants. It didn't take long. When he was done, Jared clutched Richard's shoulder, trying to muffle a sob against his neck. Richard chuckled at him and Jared was glad he was amused by the embarrassing display.

"Oh Richard," he said as quietly as he could. "You didn't have to do that."

Richard shrugged. "I don't mind. Seems only fair."

Jared gave him the handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his hand.

"How long have you wanted that?" Richard asked him.

"Since the day I met you," Jared admitted breathlessly.

Richard smiled impishly and Jared thought he would never be this happy again in his life.

"Did you want to do it again sometime?"

~~~

"First wave?" Asked the Colonel in his ear. Jared repeated her question.

"Yeah. The first wave, the infiltrators. We have a budgeted timeline of about ten years to finish the job, with a max allowed population loss of .01 percent. If we exceed either of those, they send in the second wave."

"And what's the second wave?" Jared asked before the Colonel even prompted him.

"First I want to ask you a question."

"You can ask, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to answer."

Sonny nodded. "Okay. I guess, what I really want to know is. How are you? I mean really? Are you back at work? They're not keeping you here are they?"

The Colonel gave no instruction, but Jared didn't know how they could possibly object to answering such an innocuous personal question. 

"I'm... I'm holding up. They didn't hold me here, no." Not for long anyways, after the initial round of questioning. "Work is going." Miraculously, held together by the sweat and tears of everyone left, and the promise that they would undo everything that Richard did. "There's a lot of it. That's good, it's distracting." 

Jared looked at the man before him, really let himself look. The haunched posture, the in-drawn toes, the pointed face. Seeing him again was like a balm on his soul. 

"I've missed you," he confessed. "Missed Richard, I mean."

"I've missed you too." 

"Now ask about the second wave." The Colonel chimed in. "No, wait, back up and ask him more about the first." Voices raised in the background – some kind of disagreement about what to ask next. When they became too loud, Jared pulled the earbud out to give them time to decide.

To his mortal shame, tears started rolling down his face. He covered his mouth with his hand to stifle a sob. 

How terrible of him, how disgusting! That he should be talking about the fate of the world and everyone in it, yet he was crying over this, the insignificant words of one person, saying that he missed him. 

_Pull yourself together Donald_. He took one short, sharp breath and stopped crying. He hadn't had to stop up his emotions like that in a long time, but he still knew how. 

"Don't cry, Jared. It's gonna be okay," Sonny told him. 

Jared felt a spark of anger, a rare emotion that surprised him. 

"Of all of the lies you've told me, Richard – Sonny. That is the most cruel." 

~~~

Richard invited himself to Jared's condo. They did things that they didn't have time or space for in Richard's private office bathroom, in the tidy fifteen minute meetings that Jared scheduled in their work calendar every other day.

After, they lay bathed in the evening sun drifting through the curtain, while a corner fan blew cool air in waves up and down their skin. Richard let his hand wander appreciatively over Jared's flank while his eyes roamed lazily over the rest of him.

"What are you thinking?" Asked Jared.

Richard brushed his fingers through the sweat-damp hair at Jared's temple.

"I was thinking about chemistry. Biochemistry. Oxytocin and vasopressin, dopamine, seratonin. The whole," he gestured vaguely towards his head. "...chemical soup."

Jared smiled because that was such a _Richard_ thing to say. "I had a foster mother who refused to believe that our feelings were 'just chemicals.' As though they weren't real."

"Not at all. They're chemicals that signal, well," Richard looked to his eyes and Jared could see every striation in his irises, he could see his pupils dilate by the smallest quotient, a microscopic space that meant entire worlds to him. "They signal compatibility, and that's important. Maybe one of the most important things in existence."

"Compatibility for what?" Jared asked, wondering now if Richard was talking in the abstract again because he imagined 'compatibility' to mean 'compatibility for reproductive purposes,' which was something tragically out of reach to them.

"I guess we'll find out," said Richard with a crooked smile.

While Jared's mouth hung open in surprise, Richard pushed forward and whispered into his ear.

"I was thinking about your saliva. Trying to figure out why it tastes so good."

Jared could have told him that it was his vegetarian diet, but instead he let Richard kiss him, exploring the mystery with little flecks of his tongue, and wondered at the majesty of the universe.

~~~

"It's not going to be okay. But it's not going to be as bad as you think. I promise."

For a brief moment Jared couldn't find anything to say. If Sonny meant to comfort him, these words that the opposite effect. Jared took a moment to compose himself.

"How? How is it going to be, exactly?"

"Well, you'll be integrated into a kind of... conglomerate."

"Assimilated?"

"No, it's not like the Borg. We don't turn anyone into cyborgs, and it's not a collective consciousness. I mean, you could join one of the hives if you want to, there are tests to pass and stuff. But in general, it's not like that. If you want to compare it to something from Star Trek, it's more like the Federation. If the Federation wanted to take over the universe."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Sonny winced at the dismay on Jared's face. "I know it doesn't sound great. You won't like it at first. The assessment people will come in, the bean-counters. Decisions that you're used to making yourselves will be made by System Control. Population control is probably the worst. But they'll figure out how to run things more efficiently. You'll have access to resources and technology that you can't even imagine. And in a few generations your kids won't know anything different than how it is. You'll get used to it. We all do," he shrugged.

"Did you get used to it? Was your planet integrated?"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah. A long time ago."

"Did you like it?"

Sonny hesitated. "Not at the time," he finally admitted. "They had crude methods back then. The soldiers dragged our leaders out and killed them as publicly as possible. Scorched whole swathes of land to exterminate the resistance fighters. Those guys are fucking assholes. But if we do our jobs right here, you won't ever see them."

Once again, Jared had no idea how to respond. The determination in Sonny's eyes, it scared him, the absolute resolution that he was doing the right thing, that he was doing them a _favour_.

~~~

Late in the year, Richard gave him a small box.

"Oh, thank you. How nice." Jared assumed it must be an early holiday gift, but the delight fell from his face when he saw what was inside:

A mens' onyx ring, strung on a matching silver chain.

"What's this?" Jared asked. He dismissed his initial sense that it was a practical joke. Richard wouldn't do that to him.

Richard leaned back against his desk. Everyone else had gone home.

"That's my Grandpa's class ring. I got a chain so, you know, if you want to wear it, you can wear it around your neck."

Confusion etched a furrow in Jared's brow. His mind sputtered to grasp a meaning for this gift.

Richard sighed. "I know, we can't exactly shout it out. Things around here are a little... complicated right now. But I wanted you to know that I'm serious about this. We shouldn't have to sneak around forever. We'll figure something out."

In order to let their relationship be known while satisfy company policy, one of them would have to leave. Jared had given it some thought before. But he never thought Richard would want anything like this. He didn't imagine there would be a formal commitment of any sort.

"I had to get my Dad to send the ring. So now my family wants to meet you this Christmas. If that's okay."

When Jared still didn't respond, Richard took the box from his hands.

"I'm sorry, God, I wasn't thinking. Here."

Richard got down on one knee and held up the open box with the rings inside.

"Donald Jared Dunn, will you –"

He didn't get to finish because Jared burst into loud, ugly tears.

Richard spent the next hour trying to calm him down, and Jared completely forgot about what he had stayed to talk to Richard about. The concern brewing about the shift in their direction. The rumours about a government contract that Jared had only just found out were true. The discrepancies in code that Richard had written, pointed out by not one but three employees. He never did address any of it.

~~~

"Dunn! _Dunn!_ " Jared's earbud, sitting in his palm, made itself known. Jared put it back in.

"Ask him why. What do they want from us?" The Colonel instructed firmly.

"Why take over the planet? Do you want resources? Slaves?" _Meat,_ came to Jared's mind, but he was too afraid to ask.

"Not really? I mean, some resources will be traded out. And once they figure out what you're good at, off-planet jobs will be made available, but that's voluntary. No, mostly the conglomerate just wants _control_. To prevent future conflict. Any species that's aggressive enough to climb up on top of the food chain and fling themselves into space will never be content to share it nicely."

"So, you started this war, to prevent a war later?"

Richard sighed. "I know, sounds stupid. But this one is a war that we can easily win."

"You seems sure of that."

"I'm prepared to tell you whatever you want to know, because at this point, it won't make a difference. This is just the first wave, and it's going well so far. If it doesn't, they'll send the second wave. The soldiers I talked about. If you fight those guys off, they'll send the microscopics. If nothing else works, the fourth wave is annihilation. Heavy weapons fire. They'll save some samples for the zoo, and that'll be it."

Jared put his hand over his earbud.

"The heavy weapons. What are they? Do you know how they work?" Jared conveyed a question from the Colonel.

Sonny rolled his eyes. "Does that guy know how an F-16 works?" He flicked his thumb towards one of the soldiers at the door. "I could tell you what they do, but Richard could probably take a better guess at the physics involved. But you'll never get a chance to build one. You just don't get it. You can't fight this. You will, I know you will. But you shouldn't. There are seven thousand, two hundred and forty two star systems in the conglomerate. They have a system and it works. You won't win."

Jared went quiet. Even the Colonel had nothing to say.

"I'm sorry, Jared. You would've found out soon. Are you... are you okay?"

Jared closed his eyes. "No Sonny. I'm not okay." He never thought he would ever let himself use those words in his life.

"Fair enough. Is there anything I can tell you – you personally? Is there anything you want to know?"

Jared opened his eyes again. He took out his earbud. His entire world was about to end and he needed one thing, just one thing to hold onto, or his sanity might slip further than he could catch.

"Is Richard okay? Is he still in there?"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah, he's okay. He's pissed off that he's not in the driver's seat, but he's here, and he's okay." Sonny raised his damaged hand and wiggled his unbroken fingers. "Don't worry, he can't feel this. I blocked his pain sensors, so he won't feel any of this."

"Will he ever recover? I mean will he ever be 'in the driver's seat'?"

Nobody knew how to remove one of these aliens from an infected host. Nobody had ever caught one alive. When cornered, they committed suicide, leaving their hosts' brains a mass of liquid proteins. All but this one.

"He could be, if I leave him."

"Can you do that? Would you? Please?"

Sonny looked up at Jared in a way that made him ache, it was so familiar and comforting.

"I can. But I would want something in return."

Jared looked down to his lap, trying to stay calm while he endured the strange sensation of hope and despair mixing in the pit of his stomach.

"Haven't you taken enough from us already?"

~~~

 _Hot._ Hot everywhere. Even the bathtub enamel felt hot against his skin.

 _Richard. Richard it's okay. I'll be okay. Don’t make a fuss over me,_ Jared wanted to say, but every breath felt like a struggle. A tight knot of pain throbbed against his upper esophagus. It almost felt like something was growing there.

Richard was frantic. Wide-eyed. Hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. He dumped another bag of ice in the bath water. With one hand holding his phone to his ear, he stirred the contents of a glass bowl with a thermometer. He added a few drops of something from a bottle. Other bottles lay strewn around the floor, bottles and jugs and boxes of powders.

With Jared panting in the passenger's seat, they'd driven with tires screeching to a hardware store, an art supply store, and a pet shop. Now they were in a hotel bathroom.

"Okay, it's at 98. Now? Like, now?"

Richard put everything aside.

"Sit up for me Jared. Here we go. It won't be much longer. You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be okay. I promise you'll be okay." Jared could see tears welling in Richard's eyes.

Pulling him into a sitting position, Richard tipped Jared's head forward and held the bowl up, just under his mouth. The liquid inside was milky blue and smelled of fertilizer.

 _I'm not going to be sick, Richard. I feel fine!_ Jared thought but couldn't say.

But then he was sick. He must have been sick. He opened his mouth and something came out, but it didn't feel like it came from his stomach.

He couldn't breath.

His vision went black.

When Jared woke up, he was lying back in the tub, the ice cubes melted and the water drained to a few inches. Breath came easily, and he could feel the heat lifting, leaving behind only deep exhaustion.

Somebody stood at the doorway, just out of view. He could hear Richard speaking to him.

“Is it going to be okay?” Richard sniffled.

“Readings say it's viable. Congratulations,” an unfamiliar voice replied.

“Have there been any other hybrids?”

“This is one of the first. We're bringing a shipment home soon.”

"Tell my folks to name him after the star. This one out here. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Later, Richard sat on the floor by the tub, holding his hand while they waited for the ambulance.

"I didn't know, I swear. I didn't know that was going to happen."

What had happened? Jared could barely remember. The past few hours were dissolving into a fever haze.

He watched emotions uncountable cross Richard's face: relief and weariness and ten different species of worry. Happiness too. So Jared was happy for him.

“We’re going to be a family someday,” Richard told him, and Jared decided he must be dreaming. That was all he’d ever wanted, so it must certainly be too good to be true.

~~~

They ran every conceivable test. The alien, the 'rider', the parasite that called itself Sonny, was no longer inside of Richard. Once they made that determination, they transferred him to a military hospital, one that allowed visitors.

Richard dozed in his bed, propped halfway up, with earphones around his neck and a laptop on his stomach. Seeing the sight so familiar, Jared covered his mouth to stifle a bubble of laughter, but allowed himself to savour the joy, as bright and pure as the sunshine spilling from the window onto the sheets in Richard's lap.

Richard opened his eyes.

Jared reached out to hold his hand, but Richard flinched and drew it back.

"Please don't. Just – please."

Jared's breath caught in his throat. He let his hand drop. Richard wouldn't meet his eyes, so Jared looked away too. He felt the enormity of what he'd done settle onto him, settle into his bones, washing the colour away from the world.

"I'm sorry," said Jared. "I'm so sorry. I should have known it wasn't you."

Richard's hand closed jerkily, and he brought his other hand up over it. They had said there would be damage. He would recover, but he wasn't recovered yet. Jared wished he could be there to help him, but someone else would have to do it. Richard shouldn't have to look at him anymore. Jared didn't deserve to be in the same room as him. After this, he was certain he never would be.

First there was one last thing.

Jared lifted the silver chain from under his shirt and pulled it off over his head. He pooled the ring and the loops of silver in one hand and placed it gently on the bedside table.

"No," said Richard. "You keep that."

Richard was finally looking up at him, so Jared let himself look back. He couldn't speak for the heavy stone in his throat.

"He let me live because of you. And I have no good way to make it up to you."

Richard took the ring and held it out to him. Jared gathered it up and held it cupped in his hand like a small bird.

"Thank you," Jared managed to whisper. 

~~~

Jared stepped through the door and they closed it behind him. He took in the room and all of its contents: the white walls, the lone shelf, the toilet, the sink, and the bed with Sonny sitting on it.

Sonny looked up but made no move towards him. He looked like Richard, exactly like him. In less than a week, they said, he'd grown from the size of a slug into a full facsimile of a human, given nothing but a tank of sugar and proteins.

Jared set his duffle bag down by the door. He'd brought clothing, his personal toiletries, and several paperback books. This was Jared's bargain – Richard's freedom in exchange for his own. The operators of this facility weren't obliged to honour it, but hungry as they were for more information about this creature, they wanted to see what would happen.

Jared thought he should be afraid, but he wasn't. Everything was so muted now.

He sat down on the bed beside Sonny.

"May I hold your hand?" Sonny asked.

Jared nodded, so Sonny did. Jared studied him now from up close. The tips of his fingers were clear and gelatinous. Jared thought that he must not be 'fully baked' yet. His eyes were still a shade too light, and when Jared reached up to touch his downy hair, he saw him blink with a third inner eyelid, like a lizard. Jared was grateful for the distinction.

He let Sonny lay down with him. With Sonny's cheek tucked against his chest and his hand curled around his side, Jared felt his traitorous body respond with a release of chemicals. They listened to each other breathing and he felt the complicated comfort of not being alone in the universe.

END


End file.
